Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

One of the challenges for the civil justice system is knowing how to enforce judgments made by the courts that money should be paid by the losing party to the winner. At the heart of this issue is the problem of whether someone cannot pay (because they just do not have the resources) or won’t pay (because they won’t).

The rules relating to enforcement agents working for both the High Court and County Court were amended with effect from April 2014, and a review of the first year of operation of the new rules was started a year later in 2015. The results of that review were published in April 2018.

The results of the review are not in themselves particularly startling though there are indications that the new rules are beginning to have some impact, both in relation to the behaviour of enforcement agents, and in encouraging people to come to an agreement before their possessions are actually seized for sale (the usual objective of enforcement action in civil cases).

This is very much work in progress. Indeed, a significant component of the big Transformation Programme is the Transforming Compliance and Enforcement Programme (TCEP) which is upgrading systems in HMCTS’s National Compliance and Enforcement Service, used to enforce court orders such as penalties and compensation. If this works, this will have impact across the whole of the justice system, not just civil justice, as it will also deal with fines and compensation orders made in criminal courts.

For the one year review, see https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/695833/one-year-review-bailiff-reform-web.pdf